RESCUING DRUG USERS

Pbs Report On Faith-Based Social-Services Efforts Features Teen Challenge,
Christian Drug-Rehabilitation Program In Fredericksburg Area

HEN MIKE ZELLO moved to the Fredericksburg area last year, he had a
plan--help drug addicts kick the habit and re-enter society as law-abiding
citizens.

With his Bible in hand, he set out to establish a local chapter of Teen
Challenge, an international Christian-based substance-abuse prevention and
treatment program.

Teen Challenge of Fredericksburg provides crisis counseling, drug
education, residential care and job placement for those with drug problems.

At the moment, Zello is working with four recovering addicts who live in a
Teen Challenge trailer near Garrisonville in North Stafford. They're called
"re-entry students" in the program.

One of Zello's students, Larry Scott, will share his story on public
television. Scott, 24, will be featured in "God and the Inner City," a
documentary focusing on President Bush's faith-based initiatives.

The 56-minute program, which will also feature Big Brothers Big Sisters of
America and the Ella J. Baker House in Boston, will air at 8 p.m. tomorrow
on WETA, channel 26, in Washington, and at 11 p.m. on WCVE, channel 23, in
Richmond.

"Larry is a true miracle, and we pray that his testimony will inspire many
people," said Zello, a missionary of the Assembly of God.

He and his wife, Cindy, who live in Lee's Hill subdivision in Spotsylvania
County, first met Larry Scott when he was 11 years old. At the time,
Scott's father was one of Zello's students at the Teen Challenge Center in
Capitol Heights, Md.

Larry Scott later found himself battling with drugs and alcohol. He started
smoking marijuana and crack cocaine when he was 18 years old, and at one
point spent $4,000 in two weeks to get high.

When the PBS program was taped last year, Scott was still battling the
aftermath of abuse.

"I'm not the same person I was in the video," Scott said. "I'm a different
man."

The documentary follows Larry Scott for four months--from his reunion with
the Zellos to his departure from center.

Scott has since moved with the Zellos to the Fredericksburg area.

He completed the program's required one-year residential phase, in which he
attends church, studies the Bible and learns to live a drug-free life. He's
still with the program and works for a cement company in Lorton.

"If it weren't for Pastor Mike, I don't know what I'll be doing right now,"
Scott says in the PBS program. "I might not even be here. I might be dead
right now."

Zello, who worked for Teen Challenge in the Washington area for 19 years,
said he's received nonstop calls since word got out about his
Fredericksburg-area center.

"I'm stunned on how many drug addicts there are here," he said. "If we had
a center with 100 beds, it would be full."

Zello's students visit him everyday after work and attend the Spotsylvania
Assembly of God Church off U.S. 1.

They also visit several area churches with Zello, to tell their stories and
to raise money for the organization, which is supported by private
charitable contributions.

The Rev. David Wilkerson founded Teen Challenge in New York City in 1958
with the purpose of using God's word to break the power of addiction.

He was inspired after reading an article about gang members on trial for
murdering a paralyzed boy in New York.

Wilkerson, a pastor with the Assembly of God in Pennsylvania, went to New
York in hopes of speaking with the troubled boys. Instead, he was thrown
out of court for interrupting the trial.

The situation, however, made him realize the scope the problem among youth
and their need for spiritual help.

He started Teen Challenge in New York, which has since grown to 350 centers
worldwide.